Ticket hoarders benefit from Sachin's 'last Test'

There have been few tickets on sale for genuine fans.

As Mail Today has been reporting since Thursday, there are hardly any avenues for fans to buy tickets, since the designated website doesn’t work and there are no box office-type windows.

While fans have run from pillar to post to get hold of tickets, especially with rumours doing the rounds that this could well be Sachin Tendulkar’s last Test on home soil, blackmarketers have definitely benefited from the situation.

Delhi and District Cricket Association’s (DDCA) lack of intent in advertising the fact that tickets could also be bought at Bank of Baroda branches has further helped those looking to make a quick buck.

Even as hundreds of fans have queued up at the box-office window outside the neighbouring Ambedkar Stadium – a permanent fixture for fans during every match played at the Ferozeshah Kotla — they have been disappointed to see no ticket sale taking place. There is a petrol pump just adjacent to the window and that is where the blackmarketeers have been slyly carrying out their job.

Montu, who claims to have done this many times in the past, feels that the closing of the counter outside the Ambedkar Stadium has really helped them.

"Generally there are not too many takers for Test match tickets. But with the main counter closed, we have found quite a lot of takers. We have been selling the Rs 500 tickets for Rs 800 and considering that this could well be Tendulkar’s last match, fans have been eating out of our hands,” he told Mail Today.